Weekly Photo Challenge: Light

How fitting! I’ve been struggling with light settings on my camera because I know nothing about how a camera works and I mostly use the autofocus setting.

Plus… I like to photograph waterfowl and if the sun is bright, it adds another light challenge of reflecting off the water.

Female common Merganser

I asked a friend why the white parts of so many of my photos looked so bright and lacked detail.

He said that photos taken in low light will make white surfaces whiter and you get a washed out look.

Female Hooded Merganser

Even if I tweak the photo in some photo software, I can’t completely compensate for my lack of knowledge of how to use a camera.

Mating Ritual of the Hooded Mergansers

My friend did give me some tips though so I’ll keep learning and trying to apply it to get better pix.

The hooded mergansers were fun to watch. I assume it was a mating ritual. The female stretched out flat in the water as the male swam away from her; stretching his neck forward, then retracting it. Then he’d swim back toward her doing the same thing. When another female came toward her, she chased her off. At that point I think her coyness was busted.

2 youth and 1 adult Goldeneye

Today the Goldeneyes spent a lot of time feeding in front of our house. I think these are Common Goldeneyes instead of the Barrow’s Goldeneyes.

Adult Goldeneye

I presume the autofocus camera can compensate for lack of light by slowing the shutter speed. I think that’s why these photos aren’t focused perfectly. If it were film I could see that slowing the shutter speed would let in more light due to the time it is exposed. But I wonder how a camera over-exposes a digital image?

Dive! Dive!

I do know that a slower shutter speed doesn’t stop action as well as a quick snap. That’s a Goldeneye-side-flip.